Technology, Time and Twitter

So in less than four months, I will officially be on the freelance market, scrounging together a living from writing articles, teaching some classes, and perhaps selling those fundraising packs of chocolate bars (kidding about that one, maybe). In an effort to get this freelancing thing started right, I read a great article on the AWP Job List yesterday, (you’ll need to be a member of AWP to see it – sorry), about how to make yourself more marketable as a freelance. One of the things the writer suggested was to sign up for Twitter, so I did.

Now, I’m addicted. Not as addicted as I am to Facebook, but I could see this new technology becoming even more fascinating. I’m not sure how this will get me work, but it sure is fun to get updates on the new ICanHasCheezburger photos.

But now I am in a dilemma – how many Firefox tabs is it really reasonable to have up and running at any given moment? For example, right now, I have open the tab where I’m writing this post, my gmail tab, my twitter tab, and my Facebook tab. I could also open my work email tab, my Myspace tab, a tab with my actual website on it, my college’s site tab, and on and on. . . . and if I did that, I would get absolutely nothing done. But I would know what everyone of you is doing approximately every 17 minutes, which is creepy in and of itself.

So my question is about how much this technology is worth it. Am I creating real community or just creating a sense of community with none of the real friendships? Am I just wasting time (that’s certainly true on some level)? Why do so many of us use these tools? What does it say about us that we spend more time telling people what we’re doing rather than asking what others are doing? What do you guys think?